A Letter from Randy & Jim Weiss
A
wise man once said, "A child is the greatest resource our
republic possesses." In 1989, sharing this sentiment, we
started a company called "Greathall Productions" to bring
to life for children the greatest stories from classic
literature and history.
That
first summer, Jim created five, hour-long recordings while
Randy began organizing the business side of our efforts.
Our daughter, Danna, stuck
gold stickers on the outside of the cassette tape boxes — there
were no CDs yet — and less than three months after
we had the idea, we had five finished recordings packaged,
shrink
wrapped and ready to go.
We
had never heard of "a professional storyteller," did not know if there was
an audience for what we were doing. We know only that the classics, from Aesop
to Shakespeare, from Greek mythology to King Arthur through Dickens and Dumas,
were often ignored or presented in a way that radically changed the original
stories. We knew from experience, however, that a story well told would ignite
a love of learning in a listener. Our goal then, as now, was to instill
in children the lifelong love of great literature by telling the stories on
a child's
level without altering the authors' intent.
Those
first recordings began to fly out our door from the very first day. It turned
out that there were millions of people hungry for what we did. Now, years
later, we have dozens of different recordings, all of which
have won national awards,
and there are far too many copies for our daughter (now grown up) to sticker.
We receive letters, e-mail and phone calls from all across America and from
other countries that tell us, "My daughter is a reader thanks to you" or "After
listening to you, my sons came home from the library with five books on mythology." We
love the letters that tell us, "We were in the sculpture section of the museum,
and my husband and I had no idea what we were looking at. Then our six-year-old
began to identify each statue. He told us he had learned all about these characters
'from those Jim Weiss CDs'." The
children are using what they have learned.
In
addition, scientists have now caught up with what we instinctively
knew was true: Reading comprehension
soars skyward when a child learns the structure of stories or develops the
listening skills associated with hearing a story
told or read aloud. So in addition to helping those among us who learn
best through hearing (auditory learners), our recordings help visual learners,
too.
Meanwhile, with Greathall Productions recordings, children and adults
experience in entertaining form the tales we need to know in order to be literate. Represented
here are the two most common sources of English language quotations, the
Bible, and the works of Shakespeare. Journeying among our Greek mythology
recordings,
you will learn the origin of such terms as "a Midas touch" or "a Herculean
task."
For a Greathall listener, phrases that pop up every day in conversation, or
on the evening newscast, become meaningful.
Best
of all, Greathall recordings are fun for the entire family. Play
a Greathall recording in the car and everyone will want to listen, and then
hear another. If mom or dad has the original book waiting at home, the child
will
want to read it. We know it works because thousands of families attest to
it.
We
love what we do. We love meeting, and hearing from our listeners,
many of whom become our friends. We love the live performances,
the keynote addresses,
the sessions on how to tell a story or how to teach history and other subjects
through story...we could go on and on, but we won't. We'll let the recordings
speak for themselves. We hope you enjoy them.
Randy & Jim Weiss |
JIM
WEISS
has been a storyteller for over 25 years. In June, 1989, Jim decided
to do something more with the craft that he had
formerly practiced solely for pleasure. He and his wife, Randy,
formed a production company, Greathall Productions, and have thus
far produced